obvious

English Online Dictionary. What means obvious‎? What does obvious mean?

English

Etymology

16th century, from Latin obvius (“being in the way so as to meet, meeting, easy to access, at hand, ready, obvious”), from ob- (“before”) + via (“way”). In order to avoid an awkward form such as *obvy, the Latin ending -us was maintained in the form -ous (which is otherwise equivalent to Latin -osus), just like in previous (contrast envious).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑb.vi.əs/, (fast speech) /ˈɑ.vi.əs/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒ.vɪəs/, /ˈɒb.vɪəs/, (fast speech) /ˈɒv.jəs/
• Hyphenation: ob‧vi‧ous

Adjective

obvious (comparative more obvious, superlative most obvious)

1. Easily discovered, seen, or understood; self-explanatory.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:obvious.

Antonyms

• unobvious
• non-obvious
• subtle

Derived terms

• obviously
• obviousness

Collocations

Translations

References

Further reading

• “obvious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• obvious at OneLook Dictionary Search
• obvious in Britannica Dictionary
• obvious in Macmillan Collocations Dictionary
• obvious in Ozdic collocation dictionary
• obvious in WordReference English Collocations